{"id":3674,"date":"2013-03-17T11:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T05:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/?p=3674"},"modified":"2013-03-17T21:21:17","modified_gmt":"2013-03-17T15:21:17","slug":"condors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/2013\/03\/17\/condors\/","title":{"rendered":"Condors!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"_MG_2144\"<\/a>One of the great things about Bolivia is that wherever you go, even if it is not where you wanted or intended to go, you will likely find excitement of some sort.\u00a0 Twice now I have tried to find my way to Laguna Arkhata, nestled as it is in the upper folds of the skirt of Mururata.\u00a0 Twice, I’ve failed to get there, coming up against cliffs, either above me or below, which did not allow me to continue.\u00a0 However, twice I’ve come across beautiful areas, and last weekend I saw condors and eagles soaring against the Illimani and Mururata peaks.\u00a0 In ten years in the Andes, this was the first time I have seen condors in the wild, so it was a very satisfying hike, even if I didn’t reach the destination.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_2136\"<\/a>Seeing condors took me way back, and I can\u2019t help but get distracted from the task at hand.\u00a0 When I was in Bolivia for the first time, 25 years ago, I discovered Peruvian writer Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Arguedas.\u00a0 Arguedas, one of the greatest of Peruvian writers, was what we might call \u201cintercultural.\u201d\u00a0 He had one foot (and much of his childhood) firmly planted in the Quechua world, and the other in the white\/mestizo world of Peruvian intellectuals.\u00a0 In his exhaustive study of Arguedas, La utop\u00eda arcaica: Jose Mar\u00eda Arguedas y las ficciones del indigenismo<\/em>, Mario Vargas Llosa argues that Arguedas, \u201c. . . was a good man and a good writer, but would have been better if . . . he had not ceded to the political pressure of the academic and intellectual world . . .\u201d\u00a0 Yawar Fiesta<\/em>, Arguedas\u2019 first novel, was written before he \u201cceded,\u201d and it is a great short novel.\u00a0 It paints the picture of an indigenous \u201crunning of the bulls\u201d in Andean Peru, including, as its culmination, the battle between a great Andean Condor, and a massive and fierce bull.\u00a0 For anyone who wants to begin to understand Andean indigenous culture, Arguedas, and Yawar Fiesta<\/em>, make a good place to start.<\/p>\n

\"Condor<\/a> Condor soaring over Illimani<\/p>\n

I saw more than condors on this hike, though.\u00a0 Also soaring between the Illimani and Mururata was a pair of Black Chested Buzzard Eagles.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_2191\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"_MG_2190\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The flora of the high Andes is also very beautiful, and I found a number of plants in flower.\u00a0 Some are common, but some I saw for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Gentianella Sedifolia is common throughout the Andes and beyond at high altitudes.<\/p><\/div>\n

To get to Laguna Arkhata, take the road to Palca out of the city, as described in the post on\u00a0hiking in the Valle de las Animas<\/a>.\u00a0 Rather than turning south towards Palca, continue on this road towards the Yungas.\u00a0 At 5.5 miles from the intersection of Ballivian with Calle\u00a025 (Arturo Fortun Sanjines) you will pass over the ridge from the Valley of La Paz into the Valley of Palca.\u00a0 You will see the area which is called the Valle de las Animas, an\u00a0area of stone and dirt spires with surrounds the Valley of Palca.\u00a0 It\u2019s not clear to me exactly what area the name \u201cValle de las Animas\u201d refers to, but there is lots of Animas\u00a0country around this area.\u00a0 Some 20 miles further, passing through fields of flowers and potatoes (in rainy season) is the pass<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This beautiful little flower is known as P’enqa P’enqa (in Quechua, I suppose) in some parts of Peru. Anyone know what it is called here in Bolivia?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>

All of these flowers are tiny. I’ve shot them in macro to allow you to see their beauty.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"If<\/a>

If anyone knows of a good guide to the flora of Bolivia, I’d appreciate the information.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Most<\/a>

Most of these flowers are at least locally common.<\/p><\/div>\n

over the eastern\u00a0range of the Andes, at some 14,825 feet of altitude.\u00a0 The turnoff to the left onto the small road leading up\u00a0the canyon of the Khuchuchani River is only 2.5 miles further.\u00a0 This canyon runs parallel and just west of the canyon harboring the four lagunas: Laram Kkota, Chiar Kkota (Black Lake, in Aymara), Kollhua Kkota, and, largest and highest, Arkhata.\u00a0 You’ll get less than a mile off of the main road before coming upon a shiny new chain which has been installed to keep you from traveling any further, at least by car.\u00a0 This\u00a0tranca<\/em>\u00a0was installed by a mining company which is operating up the canyon further, but if your destination is one or more of the lagunas, it won’t both you much, since this is about where you need to get out and start walking, anyway.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This beauty was all alone in a growing in a small hollow between boulders. It was the only one of its kind I have ever seen.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

My theory, from studying the maps and Google Earth, has been that the easiest way to get to Arkhata would be climbing the ridge between the two canyons and then dropping back down to Arkhata.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried that twice now, and failed.\u00a0 So, the next attempt will have to be up the Arkhata canyon itself, past the other three lakes, and to Arkhata.<\/p>\n

\"Loop<\/a>

Loop Hike. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, there is a .gdb file<\/a> attached with the driving route and the loop hike we did.\u00a0 I\u2019ve marked the places from which the photos were taken, but as a friend said yesterday, \u201cYou could go up there another ten times and not see condors; or you could go up tomorrow and see them.\u00a0 There is just no telling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relevant topo maps (see mapping page<\/a>):\u00a0 50k: 6044 III Palca; 100k: 3337 Cairoma; 250k: SE-19-03 La Paz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about Bolivia is that wherever you go, even if it is not where you wanted or intended to go, you will likely find excitement of some sort.\u00a0 Twice now I have tried to find my way to Laguna Arkhata, nestled as it is in the upper folds of the skirt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,92,61,99,58,63,100,57,91,59],"tags":[197,187,117,172,116,188,169,173,189,23,168,55],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3674"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3740,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions\/3740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}